Who wouldn’t want to have motivated employees? Having a motivated workforce is essential for
many reasons such as the productivity and performance levels of employees
alongside the general morale of the team. This video investigates Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy
of Needs as a theory of motivation with supporting examples of the model applied to McDonald’s.
In 1943 Abraham Maslow released a paper named “A Theory of Human Motivation” which implied,
that as humans, we naturally strive to fullfill 5 sets of basic human needs and we are programmed do
so in a particular order, this concept is well known today as “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”.
Right at the top of the hierarchy is where Maslow believed we can achieve
our full potential as humans, naming this stage as “self-actualisation”. However,
Maslow argued that we must first address our fundamental needs to have any chance
of progressing through the hierarchy, starting with what he referred to as physiological needs.
Following these physiological needs, Maslow believed that we also require our safety,
social, and esteem needs to be met before we can eventually become self-actualised.
In the modern world, these same principles can be applied to businesses to effectively
support the development of their employees and allow them to reach their full potential,
which in turn will help the business to succeed. Let’s have a look at each stage in more detail
with supporting examples of how Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs could be applied to McDonald’s and
how they aim to motivate their employees through the use of the theoretical model.
So, first of all, right at the bottom of the hierarchy is the Physiological needs,
referring to the basic needs of humans which are typically vital to our survival including food,
water, and shelter just to name a few. A good example of the physiological needs being met
by McDonald’s is them providing staff with a free meal whilst at work, ensuring that they
have eaten and are hydrated which helps them to focus in their role as they are likely to have
increased concentration and energy levels, therefore maximising their performance.
Also, McDonald’s provides employees with a standard uniform based on their role and supplied
free of charge, so they don’t have the worry of purchasing clothes for work. Now, one of the most
obvious ways in which McDonald’s supports their employees to meet their physiological needs is
to ensure they pay the minimum wage, as being able to afford to live, eat, and pay the bills outside
of the workplace is one of the main reasons most people are motivated to work initially.
Moving up the hierarchy, the next stage is safety. Safety refers to how safe and secure an individual
feels according to two main categories, health and wealth. Having a safe working environment,
which does not put employees in danger and one where they are treated with respect,
whilst receiving fair pay for their service are all important factors in this stage.
The pension scheme offered by McDonald’s to its eligible employees allows them to contribute a
set percentage of their wage to their future pension pot, which McDonald’s also contributes
too, providing employees with a sense of security in their future retirement income.
Another example of McDonald’s meeting the safety needs of employees is the guaranteed levels of
holiday and sick pay it provides, whilst these are legal obligations, they still contribute
to the employee’s safety needs being met. Furthermore, the use of flexible scheduling
provides employees with the opportunity to develop a good work life balance
whether this be for parents working around childcare commitments or students working
around their studies, all employees can make flexible working request via an online platform.
Job security, alongside fair pay which could be referred to today as the living wage are also
crucial factors which contribute to the basic needs of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs being met.
However, McDonald’s approach to meeting both of these came under scrutiny in 2019 when McDonald’s
employees went on what became known as ‘McStrike’ within which employees protested against low pay
and zero-hour contracts, demanding wages of £15 per hour, guaranteed hours,
and an end to youth rates. Arguing that the current rate of pay and variable hours meant
they were sometimes left unable to pay the bills, therefore impacting their physiological needs.
So, once the first two stages of the hierarchy which are collectively known as the “basic needs”
have been met, we can effectively progress to what can be known as our higher-level needs, starting
with social. Social needs are based on our natural desire to feel loved, accepted and wanted. At this
stage within the hierarchy, positive relationships between employees and the business are crucial,
a sense of belonging is pivotal. Feeling part of a team, creating friendships, and forming
professional relationship all play an influential role in social needs being satisfied. McDonald’s
views people development as a very serious matter, which effectively makes employees feel wanted and
invested in as people, which in turn increases their loyalty and commitment to the business
as their social needs are met. This is evident in their Learning and Development strategy which
plays a huge role at McDonald’s and is promoted as a key benefit of working for the business,
they believe if employees want to learn, develop and further progress their career,
then they will be provided with the opportunity to do so, regardless of their
length of service, role, or contracted hours. Another factor supporting McDonald’s employees
to meet their social needs is being part of a clearly structured team, whether their role is
customer facing, in the kitchen cooking the food, or even the distribution centres, every employee
is part of a team which allows them to build positive relationships and a sense of belonging.
Near the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy is the need for self-esteem, which is linked to the feeling
of being appreciated and valued, whilst effort and achievement is duly recognised, providing an
individual with a sense of self-worth and pride. At McDonald’s, every employee has three separate
performance reviews within their first year and every six months from then on, allowing employees
to truly understand how they are performing and where they need to develop as individuals.
These performance reviews not only allow employees to be praised for their efforts and
achievements which in turn increase self-esteem, but they are also linked to an annual pay review,
which increases the focus on personal performance. McDonald’s also use a recognition schemes such as
“employee of the month” to acknowledge and appreciate individual employees’ effort
and achievements with the aim of increasing their self-worth and pride.
Another strategy to boost self-esteem amongst employees is the “Service Awards” within which
employees are rewarded for their continued service and loyalty to McDonald’s through a
recognition and reward scheme, within which employees can receive retail gift vouchers
which can be worth up to £1,000 for employees who have worked at the business for 30 years.
Right at the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is self-actualisation, which
Maslow believes to be the stage where a person achieves their full potential as a human being.
Essentially, they have developed their craft, nurtured their skills, and stretched themselves
to a point where they are at their peak and doing everything they are truly capable of at
that moment in time. However, it is important to be aware that a person rarely stays in a
permanent state of self-actualisation as it is an ongoing need for personal growth and discovery.
Put simply, what makes a person self-actualised at one point in their life
maybe completely different to what makes a person self-actualised later in life
as their desires, attitude to life, and personal circumstances change.
At McDonald’s, the opportunity for promotion not only acts as a motivator in general,
but if achieved, promotion can be the reason why an employee progresses to the top of Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs and becomes self-actualised for a period of time. An example of this could
be an employee who has worked for McDonald’s for a number of years in various roles,
undertaken lots of different training and development opportunities and has finally achieved
their ambition of becoming a Manager. This is the story for 90% of McDonald’s Managers who started
at McDonald’s as crew members and worked their way up the career ladder due to the emphasis of
McDonalds internally promoting employees rather than recruiting externally where possible.
At this point, when the employee is fulfilling their potential
and working at their full capability, they have the potential to become self-actualised.
However, it’s important to note that becoming self-actualised for employees of any business,
not just McDonald’s, isn’t just solely centred around promotion and a job title, it could be
through job enrichment and taking on additional responsibilities or leading on a challenging
project, anything that provides an employee with the opportunity to fulfil their potential.
Now that we’ve looked at each stage of the hierarchy and some examples of how
McDonald’s as a business potentially supports their employees to progress to the point
of being self-actualised, it’s very important
to consider some of the key advantages and disadvantages of the motivational theory.
A key advantage of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is it being a very straight forward and logical model
which is easy to understand and apply to a given to business, effectively allowing a manager or
the owners of a business to identify any missing elements in their employee engagement strategy.
Following this, human nature is taken into account and the theory carefully considers the correlation
between our needs and wants as human beings and the impact of these on our levels of motivation,
emphasising the importance of meeting our basic needs before anything else can be
achieved to maximise performance in the workplace. However, humans are very complex and not every
employee is going to be motivated by the same factors. Infact each individual employee is likely
to motivated to a different degree by each stage of the hierarchy. For example, certain employees
may be highly motivated by the basic physiological needs but have no desire to have other factors
such as their social or esteem needs to be met due to personal circumstances or preferences.
Whereas other employees could have completely different reasons for coming to work,
it could be solely based on having their social needs met. Therefore, they never
strive to become self-actualised, so they aren’t motivated by money nor progression opportunities.
Therefore, to ensure all employees remain motivated it is important that businesses
get to know them on an individual basis to clarify what motivates them personally and
why they come to work, rather than just assuming and applying a blanket approach.
A final factor to consider is the difficulty managers face
when trying to measure which stage an individual employee is at within the hierarchy
and the impact of them satisfying certain needs as it is subjective in nature.
So that’s it, Malow’s Hierarchy of Needs. I hope you’ve found the video useful,
if you have don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to Two Teachers YouTube channel
for lots more Business Studies content. Thanks for listening and all the best.